From the 1989 LP:
If Tomorrow I Were Leavin' For Lhasa, I Wouldn't Stay A Minute More

Red Temple Spirits - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

In Nikolai Gogol's novel 'Dead Souls' the lead character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov hatches a cunning plan to buy the ownership rights to dead peasants at a knock-down price, enabling him to acquire land from the state. However, the ghoulish nature of his scheme is leaked to a horrified public and Chichikov is forced back onto the road, doomed to remain an outcast forever. 

Lyrics:

Drawn by a carriage, the driver a hunchback,
Our hero was set on his way.
His father would tell him to trust in the penny,
And make insincerity pay.
So he’d only make friends as a means to an end,
And he’d pay his respects to the rich,
But all his plans failed, before he found a way
He could satisfy his cosmic itch.

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.

His best years behind him, he spotted a loophole,
That sealed his ultimate fate.
He’ll buy up your dead, and you’ll be tax exempt,
Then he’ll mortgage the lot to the state.
And oh, when they thought he was rolling in green,
They would hang on his high cultured breath,
It wasn’t ‘til after he charmed them they found out
His business depended on death!

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dance like a fidget on fiery coals,
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Coming to town for the deeds to dead souls.

Soft, the word bled that our hero was implicated 
In a ghoulish wrong.
The ladies despised him, officials chastised him,
But he carried on with the song.
And oh, the road takes him, so they will forget him,
And vaguely remember his crime.
He thought he could settle, but they wouldn’t let him,
He freaked out too many this time!

Send him a messenger, send him a sign,
He is breaking.
Back to the first square, and now with no time,
Ah, he’s aching.

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dead Souls.

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dance like a fidget on fiery coals,
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Coming to town for the deeds to dead souls.

What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Dance like a fidget on fiery coals,
What is it Chichikov, what were you thinking of?
Coming to town for the deeds to dead souls.

Dead Souls

I'm A Fool

This 7-song album from Sunstrings is rooted in 80s indie rock, 70s punk rock, and alternative rock. Sunstrings is a male-female duo (two piece bands) from Tokyo, Japan, with a distinctively simple yet daring sound that's sure to grow on you.
▽Apple Music ＆ iTunes Store▽
Album price: usd $2.99 (7 songs)
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/artist/sunstrings/id1073058675

▽ Spotify ▽
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1smkwZFuCvN86uTGe0u9td

▽Web▽
http://sunstrings.jp

▽INSTAGRAM▽
https://instagram.com/sunstrings.jp/

▽FACEBOOK▽
https://www.facebook.com/sunstrings.jp

▽YOUTUBE▽
https://www.youtube.com/c/SUNSTRINGSJPN

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
Sunstrings was formed in 2012 by singer-guitarist Takuya Matsuda and drummer Saya.
They're noted for their simple, direct melodies, and bold sound you wouldn't expect from a duo.

The band's name is a portmanteau of "sun" and "strings." Also, the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "sun" is the same as that of the Japanese number 3, so the name Sunstrings is also understood as meaning "3 strings."
The band chose this name in reference to Takuya's 3-string guitar and the simple melodies that form the basis of their songwriting.

The duo are influenced by 80s indie rock and 70s punk rock.
In August of 2015, Sunstrings celebrated their third year as a band by releasing their first album, Green. They released the follow-up album, Orange, in September of the same year.

Tittle: Up To You
Music:  TAKUYA MATSUDA
Release:  August 1, 2015
© SUSTRINGS All Rights Reserved.
著作権等登録 第37347 号-1(copyright registration)

ORANGE

Up To You

A face-melting new version of Dragonfly Man, recorded in preparation for our upcoming world tour of Kankaanpää.

Lyrics:

The lakeside pond besheathed by weeds
And footprints scraped the churn’d mud
That laced the banks, and laced the dream
Was by the salivated cud
That which would tumble, molar-ride,
Curtailed and curtained by thin lips,
Lips arid, never moisture’s host,
Yet from these jaws some pondslime drips

And from these jaws no croak’d tones
Dared break the crickets buzzing near,
For silent backlegs squatted low,
And damp, they played a tuneless peer.

Reached out in river-mist and buzz
Did silent squatter, gleamed his eyes,
And boggled they with beauty’s awe,
Upon the dancing dragonflies,
Flew tongue, it flew, the marble tip
Slid mucus through the humid haze
And drew the darting demon back
Yet on it he could only gaze,
Twas swallowed not, and quick unslicked,
But died a turmoil, river-Zeus
Did not for luncheon snare the hide,
For this preserved another use,
Snapped wings with nimble fingers were,
The webb’d grasp worked through the day,
And pulled, and weaved, intricacied,
Til ‘fore the craftsman God-art lay.

Was nothing more, was nothing less,
Than nature’s cloak, the visage-cape,
In lightning blue, but hemmed it was,
With gossamer wings, base to nape.

So Dragon-Fly Man’s goggle-gaze
Did sparkle, did expunge with fire,
And for his life-work creaked he up
Til sick with eye-glut he spread higher,
Cleared his ceiling: broke the mist,
And taking up his scaly cloak
A stiff outstretched arm, clammy fist
In widowed time the laws it broke.

For not one was the sickly pond,
Without and mud framed for mud’s sake,
But Mud-Student in rapture flew
And only did his heart he take.

Dragonfly Man

I-remember

Back Seats

A new song about how religious delusion can lead to megalomania and power grabbing, set during the reopening of the silk road route in 629AD, during the Tang Dynasty.

Watch the video of us playing The Silk Road King in Kankaanpää here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgiRgyGQh3U

Lyrics:

An attentive ear, dear traveller,
For the tale a pauper sings,
Of a man who roamed the Xinjiang sands,
A man called the silk road king.

An attentive ear, dear traveller,
For the tale a pauper sings,
Look upon the barren Xinjiang sands,
Through the eyes of the silk road king.

Your sweet dictator in the sky, calls you
He offers you his purple hand,
Steal unto him the subtle ribbon of the Djinn,
You are a fresh thief in a foreign land.

Your sweet dictator visits in a dream,
He teaches you his final verse,
Take it as licence to accost the caravans,
For they are rolling out a godless curse.

Roll down the Tarim to the cavern of the Djinn,
The Djinn that blisters with a smokeless flame,
Retrieve the ribbon from his caustic mandibles,
Now you possess the adversary’s name.
 
You’ve never known such strength before,
Never felt so juiced, never so assured,
Ride on the chariot of absolute omniscience,
The silk road shall fall to the sword.

Now raise from the ashes a citadel of gleaming stone,
And minarets aimed at the moon,
The emperor fears you, and you hear the old one:
“Soon, I shall come to you soon.”

Your sweet dictator slithers in your bones,
Your people supplicate and cower,
Their land was stolen, and now you steal their minds,
You took the Word and made it power.

The Silk Road King

Leo The Brave( by barry sudocrem)

This powerful story set in the Italian countryside during WWII is told by master storyteller the late Odis Robertson.  In it he describes how he struggled with the will to live in the face of war and exhaustion.  The music is taken from an improvised jam I am lucky to have recorded years ago with friends.

I'm A Fool

Operatives

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